Here is my ballot for this week. 

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	--
2	Oklahoma	1
3	Texas	1
4	Florida	--
5	Penn State	--
6	Southern Cal	1
7	Texas Tech	1
8	Utah	--
9	Boise State	--
10	Ohio State	1
11	Ball State	4
12	TCU	4
13	Cincinnati	4
14	Michigan State	4
15	Oregon	5
16	Boston College	5
17	Georgia Tech	5
18	Oklahoma State	8
19	Pittsburgh	4
20	Brigham Young	1
21	Georgia	8
22	Oregon State	8
23	Northwestern	1
24	Missouri	12
25	Iowa	1

 

Ok, so Brian asked us to pay close attention to the Texas/Oklahoma controversy this week and describe our reasoning. So I gave it a lot of thought and I'll try to explain my reasoning for flip-flopping the two teams this week. I put together a list of pros and cons for each team. This is what I came up with.

Texas
Pros	Cons
Won the head-to-head with Oklahoma	Had advantage of playing Oklahoma on a neutral field
Nice win over Missouri	Missouri isn't as great as originially thought
	Lost to Texas Tech
	Beat OSU by 4 at home
	Weak out of conference schedule

Oklahoma
Pros	Cons
Beat Texas Tech soundly	Lost head-to-head with Texas
Beat OSU by 20 on the road
Beat Big East Champ Cincinnati by 26 points
Beat TCU by 25 points

As you can see, the pros pretty heavily outweigh the cons for Oklahoma in my book. I know Texas won the head to head matchup, but I watched quite a bit of that game and I can hardly say Texas established themselves as the better team. Both teams were trading scores and the lead all day long. It's a classic example of where the last team to hold the ball wins. If they had added an extra five minutes to the clock, Oklahoma probably would have scored and won.

So based on the overall resume, I have to go with Oklahoma here. They beat all the teams Texas beat more convincingly than the Longhorns did. They beat Texas Tech, who beat Texas, and they have the Cincinnati and TCU scalps on their belt.

Ok Penn State fans. You got your wish. Oregon beat Oregon State in the Civil War, and we have likely avoided a dreaded rematch with the Beavers. But be careful what you wish for.

It's funny how perceptions change. On Friday, everyone dreaded a rematch between the Beavers and the Nittany Lions. They feared that Oregon State would be grossly overmatched just like they were the first time the two teams met in Happy Valley where Penn State spanked them 45-14. But today it's a different story. Today, after the events in Corvalis, Penn State is now the team that is perceived to be grossly overmatched against USC. We have gone from being the heavy favorite to the undeserving underdog over night.

So prepare yourselves, Nittany Lion fans. I'm telling you this now. Nobody is going to give us a chance in the Rose Bowl against the mighty Trojans. Already people are saying USC deserves better than a consolation prize. Even the USC players aren't giving us any respect.

"If it's not in the national championship game, yeah, it's a disappointment," Maiava said. "But this is what we do. We win the Pac-10 and then own the Rose Bowl. That's our thing around here."

So just prepare yourselves now. Don't flood the USC message boards and blogs, because they don't care about you. You're just another moron Big Ten fan who thinks their team is going to beat them just like Iowa fans in 2002, Michigan fans in 2006, Illinois fans in 2007, and Ohio State fans in 2008. They are just as excited to play Penn State as we were to play Oregon State again. You're not going to change that.

So my advice is don't let it piss you off. Just soak it in. Let the media tell us we don't belong in the BCS. Let them tell us we don't deserve a game against an opponent as fine as USC. Let them tell us the Big Ten is slow and behind the times. Just let them say whatever they want to say, because it puts us exactly where we want to be.

Underestimated.

Any correlation between this image and Penn State's hopes
for a certain college football game this afternoon are purely coincidental.

Here's a thread to discuss the games. Enjoy.

November 27, 1919

(Yeah, ok so I'm a day late. Even BSD takes Thanksgiving off.)

The traditional Thanksgiving Day game between Pitt and Penn State was considered a tossup for the first time in years. Pitt was enjoying a six game winning streak over State and had not lost a home game in five years. But Penn State was riding a four game winning streak over some impressive names like Lehigh, Penn, and Cornell. (Trust me. Back then this was the modern day equivalent of beating Ohio State, Florida, and Texas in successive weeks.)

While scouting for the game, PSU team captain Bob Higgins noticed the Pitt players liked to rush nine or ten players on punts deep inside of enemy territory. So he devised a play to counter this and worked on it with the Penn State punter, Harold Hess. But due to his rocky relationship with head coach Hugo Bezdek, Higgins and Hess practiced the play on their own. One day during practice leading up to the game Bezdek noticed Higgins and Hess practicing the play and questioned them on what they were doing. Higgins explained the play to Bezdek who responded, "It sounds okay, but next time let me know what's going on around here."

Early in the game Pitt was driving for a score, but Penn State stuffed a fourth down rushing attempt at the six yard line and took over on downs. Higgins decided this was a perfect opportunity for "the play." It was common strategy back then to immediately punt out of poor field position without even attempting to achieve a first down. So Pitt had no suspicions of what was about to happen.

Penn State lined up in punt formation and Pitt moved in for a block attempt. The center snapped the ball, and Pitt rushed ten players leaving only one player back to receive the punt. Hess caught the snap in his endzone and drifted to his right. Then he lobbed a perfect pass to a wide open Higgins who had pretended to whiff on his block and released down field. He caught the ball at the ten yard line, and with end George Brown out in front to block, Higgins ran 92 yards for the touchdown. The Penn State fans in attendance went delirious.

Penn State grabbed the early momentum and went on to win the game 20-0. The play "took the heart out of Pitt, who appeared helpless from that stage on," wrote the Public Ledger, "There have been few games in the last quarter century where the Blue and Gold was beaten in the first two minutes of play."

Penn State finished the season 7-1 and many writers called them the champions of the east over Syracuse, Colgate, and Harvard. Higgins would go on to be named Penn State's first two-time Walter Camp All-American. The 92 yard reception is still the longest pass play in Penn State history.

(HT to the always amazing Penn State Encyclopedia by Lou Prato.)

The regular season is over. With many high schools also wrapping up their seasons you can expect the recruiting news to start heating up again. So I figured this would be a good time to update all of you on Penn State's recruiting situation as we round the fourth turn and head down the home stretch toward signing day.

Back in the spring I looked at each position and tried to project how I saw the scholarships being allocated. This was the result of that endeavor.

Projected 2009 Scholarship Allocation

Position	Projected Scholarships
Quarterbacks	2
Running Backs	2
Wide Receivers	3
Guards/Centers	2
Offensive Tackles	3
Tight Ends	1
Defensive Tackles	2
Defensive Ends	2
Linebackers	2
Cornerbacks	3
Safeties	3
Total	25

(Note: The links in the table will take you to each breakdown. Keep in mind these were written back in the spring before Chris Bell, Phil Taylor, Willie Harriott, and Chris Baker were all kicked off the team.)

To date, Penn State has 20 verbal commitments from kids to fill these 25 spots. Let's take a look at what we have to date.

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